Local Food I

Question 1

What is local food?

Answer 1

describes the relatively short geographic distance between where the food is produced and where the food is consumed

Question 2

Why is the definition of local food difficult?

Answer 2

The definition of local food is arbitrary since it is difficult to draw a line across a geographic region to mark the end of a local area with respect to your household.

Question 3

How do isolated communities define local food?

Answer 3

Isolated communities may consider food from long distances to be local because they are far away from adequate growing conditions for a crop

Question 4

What are the 2 main forms of communicating that its actually local food?

Answer 4

Directly talking to farmers

Area of origin and descriptive information of label

Question 5

What is the 100mile diet?

Answer 5

Choosing a 100-mile geographic limit on where they could get their food from

Question 6

What are the 4 benefits of a local food system?

Answer 6

Environmental
-Potential greenhouse gas emissions reduction, farm aesthetics, and wildlife habitat
Social
-Chance to influence the opinions and practices of others, contributes to food security, and meets the demand for special products
Health
-Improves freshness, nutrient content and taste, and uses Canada’s strict food safety rules
Economic
-Increasing local food production increases local jobs for other services

Question 7

what is the benefit of eating locally?

Answer 7

Reducing GHG emission from transportation
-burning fossil fuel

Maintaining diversity fro sustainability

• producing variety increase biodiversity of growing systems
• Crop rotation provides ecosystem services
• more sustainable growing system

Preserving Local farmland
-farmland preserves features of the land like hills, ponds lakes etc.

Question 8

What are the social benefits to buying local?

Answer 8

People like buying from farmers and making connections

Discussions are had about the food, threats, and food system

Farmers market can supply fun, unusual and unique foods

Question 9

What are the 3 benefits of buying local what reflect health?

Answer 9

Fresh
Bettre tasting
Nutritious

Question 10

Why are local products more fresh?

Answer 10

Freshness is associated with food when there is little time between picking and eating

• Farms that are geographically close can transport fresh food in little time
• Good appearance, vibrant colour, no defects, firm, and aromatic

Question 11

Why is local food better tasting?

Answer 11

local food does not necessarily taste better but it is the time between picking and consumption that really matters
-Local food that is harvested ripe and transported quickly tends to taste better than non-local food that was harvested unripe in order to withstand long transport times.

Question 12

Does local food taste better than non local food?

Answer 12

local food does not necessarily taste better but it is the time between picking and consumption that really matters

Question 13

Why is local food more nutritious?

Answer 13

A short time between picking and eating retains the maximum nutrients that fresh foods offer
-During transport and the retail sale period, nutrients like vitamins and antioxidants degrade

Question 14

what are the economic benefits of local food?

Answer 14

Supporting local businesses

-leads to multiplier effect in community

Question 15

What is the multiplier effect?

Answer 15

the increase in local economic activity that results from spending on a new item

Question 16

What is redundant trade?

Answer 16

Delivery trucks with peaches from the United States and from Canada pass each other going in the opposite direction

Question 17

What are the environmental challenges with local food?

Answer 17

Difficult to identify fuel efficiency per food item, and production is sometimes more efficient overseas

Question 18

What are the social challenge with local food?

Answer 18

Replacing local grains production for other foods will limit global supply

Question 19

What are the health challenges with local food?

Answer 19

A lot of healthy food is only available seasonally and many foods we enjoy are not grown in Canada

Question 20

What are the economic challenges with local food?

Answer 20

Developing countries depend on exports for economic growth

Question 21

IS the energy emissions different if local or grocery store food is purchased?

Answer 21

Its not simple
-If people drive far away for local food items then their energy emissions are added to the overall emissions created while transporting the food from the field to a household

Question 22

What are food miles?

Answer 22

measure how far the food has travelled

Question 23

Are food miles a descriptive measure of environmental impact?

Answer 23

They are not descriptive measurements of the environmental impact of food transportation

Question 24

What other environmental factor impacts transportation?

Answer 24

The type of vehicle used to transport

• trains, ships are more efficient by using less fuel
• Airplanes are inefficient

Question 25

Is local food more environmentally sustainable than regular food?

Answer 25

The environmental impact of a food product depends on how it was grown or raised
-In some circumstances local, high-input production may be less sustainable than imports

Question 26

What needs to be re-evaluated constantly in terms of sustainability?

Answer 26

The sustainability of production systems will need to constantly be reevaluated since there is not a simple solution

Question 27

How will the shift of production will reduce the global supply of staple foods?

Answer 27

Replacing imports with local food production will require more area planted to fruits and vegetables
-EX: As land is diverted from cereals production to fruit or vegetable production, fewer cereals will be exported

Question 28

How does eating only seasonal food reduce variety?

Answer 28

By welcoming the food choices that are imported to Canada during the off-season, meals are diverse and people enjoy eating.
-by repeatedly eating the same food we become accustomed to the flavours and textures, then the pleasure of eating it decreases

Question 29

What is the top fresh fruit import to Canada?

Answer 29

Bananas

Question 30

What are economic challenges for rural/poor communities?

Answer 30

Food is one of the few products economically disadvantaged countries can sell to the West.
-these communities depend on exports to wealthy countries

If developed countries collectively reduce the demand for imports it is expected to make economic development even more difficult for developing countries

Question 31

What is the UN trying to do for poor rural farmers?

Answer 31

Improve export access
-they describe that trade distributes money from rich countries to the poor. The new source of income will multiply throughout the community as the income is distributed to the people who provide goods and services to the farmer. Employment is, therefore, stimulated in other sectors in poor communities.

Question 32

What are the ways to source local foods?

Answer 32

Community supported agriculture
Farmers Markets
Pick your own
Farm to school Programs
Grocery Store

Question 33

What is community supported agriculture?

Answer 33

In a CSA program the farm will make a portion of the expected harvest available as a ‘share’ for purchase before the food is ready

Customers share some of the risk of food production by paying the same amount in a prosperous year as a challenging year

Question 34

What is agritourism mostly?

Answer 34

An experience rather than a weekly source of food

Question 35

What are the possible careers related to local food?

Answer 35

Summer work experience
Production
Community Organizations
Government
Research